Best Way to Back up Photo Work

I have been into photography for four years and have all my photographs stored on my PC but now it is full up and causing problems with the running of Photoshop. I am thinking about buying 4 external drives and storing a years worth of pictures on each drive but I have some files as a RAW File, PDF File and as a Jpeg file (for printing) should I save them all ? I was also thinking of printing the best work and then labeling them so I can find them at a later date on the external Drives.
I would love to know what everybody does and is this the best idea ??
Teabelly

I have been into photography for four years and have all my photographs stored on my PC but now it is full up and causing problems with the running of Photoshop. I am thinking about buying 4 external drives and storing a years worth of pictures on each drive but I have some files as a RAW File, PDF File and as a Jpeg file (for printing) should I save them all ? I was also thinking of printing the best work and then labeling them so I can find them at a later date on the external Drives.

I have dallied around with this myself and come to the following conclusion:
use back-up software - if I do back-ups regularly it will update only the new data (incremental back up). Without back-up software I would need to manually select the new files or download the whole kit and caboodle each time which will take ages
I think you will be able to fit far more than 1 year's pictures on a drive. There is the argument that if one drive fails at least you ahve 3 years' of data still safe but I think that is a false sense of security: I would use the drives to create 2 or more complete back-ups. The price difference between a 1TB drive and a 2TB drive is minimal so I would buy 2 or 3 2TB drives and create one working drive and at least 2 back-ups
If I have taken the time to develop and print a picture it is obviously important. I am starting to burn these as finished JPEG to DVD so if everything does fail I have the pictures that I know I [i]really [/i]want to keep. If I want to revisit the picture I would probably re-work from the original RAW so I tend not to keep the PSD or intermediary TIFF
I am starting to dislike the branded drives (especially WD) because they try to install their own backup software and I want to be in control, so my next purchase will be a 2 HDs: one will go in the second bay of my desktop and the second HD will go into a caddy (about £40) and attached to the eSATA port or USB port. This will be my back-up.
I am sure others will make different suggestions but everyone has developed their preferred way over the years.
Memory is so cheap I keep the RAW files and any JPEGs after I have weeded out the bad ones (out of focus, blurred, irrecoverably over exposed etc) or any duplicates.

I have dallied around with this myself and come to the following conclusion:

use back-up software - if I do back-ups regularly it will update only the new data (incremental back up). Without back-up software I would need to manually select the new files or download the whole kit and caboodle each time which will take ages
I think you will be able to fit far more than 1 year's pictures on a drive. There is the argument that if one drive fails at least you ahve 3 years' of data still safe but I think that is a false sense of security: I would use the drives to create 2 or more complete back-ups. The price difference between a 1TB drive and a 2TB drive is minimal so I would buy 2 or 3 2TB drives and create one working drive and at least 2 back-ups
If I have taken the time to develop and print a picture it is obviously important. I am starting to burn these as finished JPEG to DVD so if everything does fail I have the pictures that I know I really want to keep. If I want to revisit the picture I would probably re-work from the original RAW so I tend not to keep the PSD or intermediary TIFF
I am starting to dislike the branded drives (especially WD) because they try to install their own backup software and I want to be in control, so my next purchase will be a 2 HDs: one will go in the second bay of my desktop and the second HD will go into a caddy (about £40) and attached to the eSATA port or USB port. This will be my back-up.

I am sure others will make different suggestions but everyone has developed their preferred way over the years.

Memory is so cheap I keep the RAW files and any JPEGs after I have weeded out the bad ones (out of focus, blurred, irrecoverably over exposed etc) or any duplicates.

I too use back-up software - "Microsoft SyncToy" which is a free download and can, if you want it to, update only the new data (incremental back up). It has a few other options too, well worth a look at.
I also have three external drives and back-up all my original files in dated directories, as well as the above incremental files. The incremental files set means that you only have the latest set, so each month a run a backup of all my files, Photos, Acrobat, Excel, Word and Drawings (AutoCAD)and my latest dated set of Alamy Submissions.(When I have a DVD full of files, I start a new set) I also save a monthly set on DVD.
I keep two external hard drives at home and a third one in our holiday home. Before going, I back up all my files from my PC to my laptop, then when we arrive, I back up the laptop to the external hard drive there. That may seem unnecessary but it is a throwback to my self-employed days when all my files were absolutely vital! It is always best if you are in business to have a backup set away from your office (I worked from home) in case of fire.
In answer to your question, that is what I do and hope it is of help.

I too use back-up software - "Microsoft SyncToy" which is a free download and can, if you want it to, update only the new data (incremental back up). It has a few other options too, well worth a look at.

I also have three external drives and back-up all my original files in dated directories, as well as the above incremental files. The incremental files set means that you only have the latest set, so each month a run a backup of all my files, Photos, Acrobat, Excel, Word and Drawings (AutoCAD)and my latest dated set of Alamy Submissions.(When I have a DVD full of files, I start a new set) I also save a monthly set on DVD.

I keep two external hard drives at home and a third one in our holiday home. Before going, I back up all my files from my PC to my laptop, then when we arrive, I back up the laptop to the external hard drive there. That may seem unnecessary but it is a throwback to my self-employed days when all my files were absolutely vital! It is always best if you are in business to have a backup set away from your office (I worked from home) in case of fire.

Agree about off site backup - I have started using dropbox to backup important files but always have 2 external hardrives on the go at anyone time. I always thought I was safe just having 2 hardrives until hit by lightning which took out computer and all connected hardrives. Luckily the 2 connected were pretty new and only had a handful of jobs on.
Also - beware of encrypted hardrives - learnt this through the above. I will never touch western digital again!!!!

Agree about off site backup - I have started using dropbox to backup important files but always have 2 external hardrives on the go at anyone time. I always thought I was safe just having 2 hardrives until hit by lightning which took out computer and all connected hardrives. Luckily the 2 connected were pretty new and only had a handful of jobs on.

Also - beware of encrypted hardrives - learnt this through the above. I will never touch western digital again!!!!

Same here with the wd drives,, I sent my original my book wd drives back, the software installs itself in your root drive and is a nightmare to remove. I reordered 2 WD drives without the intrusive software, very good drives, wd are very reliable but avoid the one with the software installed.

Same here with the wd drives,, I sent my original my book wd drives back, the software installs itself in your root drive and is a nightmare to remove. I reordered 2 WD drives without the intrusive software, very good drives, wd are very reliable but avoid the one with the software installed.

I use WD drives sometimes but I've never seen any reason to use their software. I just use FreeFileSync and sync my image folders with two drives. One drive stays in the house, one is at the end of the garden in my shed.
I have a home in France too and am there 3 or 4 months a year, so always have copies there too.
Basically I do the same as fellow great mind thinking alike :D Focus_Man.

I use WD drives sometimes but I've never seen any reason to use their software. I just use FreeFileSync and sync my image folders with two drives. One drive stays in the house, one is at the end of the garden in my shed.

I have a home in France too and am there 3 or 4 months a year, so always have copies there too.

Basically I do the same as fellow great mind thinking alike Focus_Man.

[quote]I use WD drives sometimes but I've never seen any reason to use their software. I just use FreeFileSync and sync my image folders with two drives. One drive stays in the house, one is at the end of the garden in my shed.
I have a home in France too and am there 3 or 4 months a year, so always have copies there too.
Basically I do the same as fellow great mind thinking alike :D Focus_Man.[/quote]
The software is installed on the drives and installs itself automaticully lemmy, without asking, the only way to remove it is to install software to do that but due to the fact the software is now in your rootdrive yoou are playing with fire unless you are 100 sure of what your doing .
Its called WD SMARTWARE, the net is full of complants about like here
[link=http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/REVIEW-SmartWare-Firmware-My-Book-Studio-model-WDBAAJ0010HSL/td-p/1240]http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/REVIEW-SmartWare-Firmware-My-Book-Studio-model-WDBAAJ0010HSL/td-p/1240[/link]

Quote:I use WD drives sometimes but I've never seen any reason to use their software. I just use FreeFileSync and sync my image folders with two drives. One drive stays in the house, one is at the end of the garden in my shed.

I have a home in France too and am there 3 or 4 months a year, so always have copies there too.

Basically I do the same as fellow great mind thinking alike Focus_Man.

The software is installed on the drives and installs itself automaticully lemmy, without asking, the only way to remove it is to install software to do that but due to the fact the software is now in your rootdrive yoou are playing with fire unless you are 100 sure of what your doing .

Perhaps the software is only on the WD external drives. I bought three 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black drives and there was no software pre-installed on any of those. Just a matter of putting them in an old computer or getting a hard drive caddy to put them into use as back-up drives, or whatever.

Perhaps the software is only on the WD external drives. I bought three 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black drives and there was no software pre-installed on any of those. Just a matter of putting them in an old computer or getting a hard drive caddy to put them into use as back-up drives, or whatever.

I have found WD drives without the sotware (I think it is the 'Essential' range) and they are also cheaper. In the desktop range, it is only the 500GB drives that do not have the Smartware :( but for the portable drives you hvae to 500GB and 1TB options.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/external/portable/

I have found WD drives without the sotware (I think it is the 'Essential' range) and they are also cheaper. In the desktop range, it is only the 500GB drives that do not have the Smartware but for the portable drives you hvae to 500GB and 1TB options.